India’s Seventh Five-Year Plan (1985-90)

The draft of the seventh plan was approved on Nov, 9, 1985 by the National Development Council. It was set with a 15-year perspective.

ADVERTISEMENTS:

The aim was to create, by the end of the century, the conditions necessary for self-sustaining growth and to provide basic minimum needs for all.

Objectives:

(i) Decentralisation of planning and full public participation in development.

(ii) Removal of poverty and reduction in income disparities.

(iii) The maximum possible generation of productive employment.

ADVERTISEMENTS:

(iv) Self-sufficiency in food at higher level of consumption.

(v) Higher level of social consumption, particularly in education and health and other basic amenities.

(vi) A higher degree of self-reliance through export promotion and import substitution.

(vii) Improved capacity utilisation and productivity.

ADVERTISEMENTS:

(viii) Efficiency, modernisation and competition in industry.

(ix) Integration of science and technology into the main stream of development planning.

Outlay:

A total of Rs. 1, 80,000 crore was envigaged to the public sector at 1984-85 prices. I he actual expenditure was Rs. 2, 18,730 crore. The highest priority was given to the energy sector. Agriculture and rural development were also given importance.

There was emphasis on the implementation of lane reforms, timely delivery of key inputs to farmers and a co-ordinated approach to irrigation, drainage and land-use management to multiple cropping; Priority was also given to quick-yielding projects. Replacement and modernisation of existing capital stock were given importance so as to increase productivity.

Assessment:

ADVERTISEMENTS:

The seventh plan which came to a close on March 31, 1990 is estimated to have achieved a growth rate of 6% per annum as against the targeted growth of 5% envisaged in the plan. The expenditure incurred during the plan period far exceeded the plan expenditure.

The performance of agricultural was once again not satisfactory. Against the food-grain production target of 178 MT the actual production was only 171 MT in the terminal year of the plan. The industry however, showed production increases at satisfactory rate.

In fact, the sector registered a robust growth of 9% in 1990-91, a year after the seventh plan ended. The balance of payment which had already worsened during the Sixth Plan further deteriorated during the seventh plan with the current account deficit was large as Rs. 41012 crore. In the social sector, programmes like Jawahar Rozgar Yojna were initiated in addition to the existing programmes to reduce unemployment and consequently poverty.